An epic historical adventure starring San Martín and his army of thieves, rogues, mercenaries, slaves, and prostitutes as they fight to free Argentina from the Spanish Empire.

Not only is David a talented writer, he is a blogger and a damn cool guy. In fact, his blog is so popular it has been mentioned on several occasions on Passive Guy’s and on Joe Konrath’s. On it, he posts information about the publishing industry, its changes and how people can get in on it. His posts include his own sales numbers as his books progress, AAP figures when they come out, and anything he can find in the news and on other websites that is relevant to the topic. This is one reason why his website is so popular and why I check it every week to see if he has something new. My blog post today is a big Thank You to David for the research he does for everyone who doesn’t have time to do it themselves.

David has three titles out so far and one in the oven that is about ready to serve, but the book I really want to talk about is Let’s Get Digital. Before I do though, I’d like to mention his other three so that they are not overlooked.

I believe that, If You Go Out Into the Woods, was the first set of short stories that he published. When he did, within six weeks, he sold 200 e-books. As he says in LGD:

Not bad for an unknown, previously unpublished writer. I thought it would take me six months!

Shortly after that, he published Transfection and again witnessed the same kind of reader response. Below are the Amazon product descriptions for the short stories:

If You Go Into The Woods is a collection of two unsettling short stories.

The title story is set in Caslav, a small town 60 miles east of Prague, Czech Republic. Jiri Beranek is drawn to a nearby forest, captivated by birds hidden high in the trees. Each time he enters, his desire to see the mysterious creatures is checked by his fear of the dark. When he finally forces himself to go farther, he finds a new reason to be afraid. This story was first published by The Delinquent (UK) then selected by Short Story America for inclusion in their anthology of their best stories of 2010.

The bonus story – The Reset Button – is set in Stockholm, Sweden in the depths of winter. Linus Eriksson, a divorced bachelor living alone in his small one-bedroom apartment, is a man with a memory problem: instead of not being able to remember anyone, nobody can remember him. This story is brand new, exclusively available in this e-book.

These two creepy tales have a combined length of 4,000 words, or around 16 book pages.

Molecular biologist Dr. Carl Peters is under pressure on two fronts: his research grants are disappearing and his marriage is falling apart. But when medical researchers discover that genetically modified animal feed has tainted the food chain, he finally gets the funding he always dreamed of.

Dr. Peters discovers the reason behind the cancer link with GM food, but it’s so crazy, he barely believes it himself.

Transfection is a 5,700 word, 23-page old-school science fiction story, starring a molecular biologist who makes a discovery that shocks the world, only to find his life under threat. It takes in militant vegans, corruption, homelessness, university politics, radiation, the celebrity-obsessed media, and a shadowy conspiracy.

Transfection is a digital original.

And, of course, I can’t forget A Storm Hits Valparaiso. This one, he is still working on and is about to release at any time. David has been working on this piece of historical fiction for years because of all the meticulous research he has had to do, even visiting foreign areas of the world, not just to get the facts straight in the novel, but also to make the dialogue believable (his post on it here.) This is a very, very difficult thing to do. I am really looking forward to reading it when he is finished to see how it comes out.

It’s a story, I know, that is near and dear to his heart. He says:

It’s the kind of book I love to read: a big, sweeping tale with a huge cast of characters whose stories gradually come together, including, two brothers torn apart by love; a slave running for his life, a disgraced British seaman seeking redemption in a foreign land; an Indian trapped in the death mines of Potosí; and a Spanish general who deserts the army to lead a bloody revolt against his former masters.

If you would like to read about the book, you can click on this link, or just click on the picture.

Now on to Let’s Get Digital. This book is one of the best guides to self-publishing that is out there and at $3.99, is a steal for all the information it teaches its readers. In it, David talks about his own experience with breaking into the traditional publishing world and why he finally decided to self-publish. He addresses the publishing industry and the challenges it faces.

The topics of part one of the book include: comparison to the music business, piracy, royalties, editing, literary agents, Amazon, prints books, and e-books. At the end of part one, he debunks the myths about self-publishing that are being passed around by all those who are either pro-trad pubbing or who are ignorant of the facts of self-publishing because, for whatever reason, they haven’t tried it yet.

Part two of the book is all about how to self-publish. How to write, edit, and format your story. It talks about cover designing, uploading, pricing, sales, blogging and websites, social networking, reviews, competitions, discounts, giveaways, and blog tours.

Part three summarizes 33 self-publishing success stories which are amazing tales in themselves. The only parts of the book I thought needed updating was this one, as there have been numerous personal success stories come out since LGD’s publication (Darcie Chan, to name one,) and part two, since there have been new developments in the indie publishing world (Amazon KDP Select, for example.)

I have to say that David has done a much better job than I have at writing and publishing his own stories, promoting them, networking, and on top of all that, keeping the masses informed of what is happening in the publishing industry via his blog. I don’t how he finds the time! I barely have time to get to the gym! Yikes!

Good job, David! Keep up the good work! Good luck! Although, I think you might not need it.